Australia ignoring solar power, says pioneer

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1 Page 1 of 4 Australia ignoring solar power, says pioneer Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 31/01/2007 Reporter: Matt Peacock Australia's leading solar power innovator leaves the country tomorrow, frustrated because he believes this country cannot see past its rich coal and uranium reserves, and recognise that the sun is Australia's richest energy resource of all. Transcript KERRY O BRIEN: Australia's main energy suppliers have released a study today supporting the Federal Government's expressed view that clean coal, if and when it is economically feasible, backed by nuclear power is the nation's best hope for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions. The study puts solar power and other renewables down the list. Coincidentally, Australia's leading solar power innovator leaves the country tomorrow because big American investors want to put his technology to far greater use in California. Professor David Mills, a Canadian expatriate who has made Australia home and carved out a reputation here as a world pioneer in solar research, has developed solar technology that, he believes, could power Australia. The frustrated scientist believes this country can't see past its rich coal and uranium reserves and recognise that the sun is Australia's richest energy resource of all. Matt Peacock reports. MATT PEACOCK: Solar power in NSW coal country, where Macquarie Generation s Liddell power station is topping up its dirty coal power with this clean, green solar plant. DAVID MILLS, CHAIRMAN, SOLAR HEAT AND POWER (2004): Eventually this field will be 135,000 square metres. At the moment it is 1 per cent of that size and what will happen is that sunlight on a clear day like this strikes those mirrors and is gathered up onto the tower, and there is an absorber underneath that tower. In that absorber there are steam pipes and water and water is simply boiled there and that steam is drawn off and taken to the application. In this case, the application will be spliced into the power station that already exists. MATT PEACOCK: Professor David Mills is a world leader in solar research and his company, Solar Heat and Power, has no doubt about the potential of this plant. DAVID MILLS: Our solar technology can probably run the biggest size turbines today of any solar technology. MATT PEACOCK: So what you are saying is that you could power Sydney? DAVID MILLS: Yes, we could power Sydney, but we can power Australia on it. MATT PEACOCK: But a study released today by the Energy Supply Association of Australia's CEO, Brad Page, rates clean coal, nuclear and gas far ahead of solar in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. BRAD PAGE, ENERGY SUPPLY ASSOC OF AUSTRALIA: Solar and wind remain relatively low on the list

2 Page 2 of 4 because we don't see that their cost is going to come down to competitive levels. DAVID MILLS: We've never been in contact with them about this technology. But what I will say is that when we look at our situation in the United States for a coal plant built in the United States, and the building of such a plant would not be significantly different in cost than in Australia, our construction cost for a large plant would come within the range of present coal plants - not in the mid range, but we don't have fuel costs. MATT PEACOCK: Today, like a string of other Australian solar researchers before him, David Mills is packing his bags to move overseas. DAVID MILLS: For 30 years, I've been trying to develop a solar industry in Australia. So I think that's a good effort. I've given it a good go. I'm happy, because I think the planet needs this technology. It's not just Australia that needs this technology. MATT PEACOCK: Mills and his company headquarters are moving to California, the world's seventh-largest economy, where in a biapartisan move Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to cut greenhouse emissions by a massive 80 per cent over the next 45 years. Now the race is on. ARNOLD SCWARZENEGGER: Our goal is we have to roll it back to the 1990 level. We can do that. PROF STEPHEN SCHNEIDER, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: California is at the moment leading the world in terms of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. There is also a lot of people here and a lot of money. There is a lot of sunshine. There is a lot of wind, and as a result of that there is going to be a lot of experimentation to see who comes out the cheapest and the safest and the fastest. MATT PEACOCK: California will soon cap greenhouse gases, enforce cuts to vehicle pollution, subsidise solar rooftop systems and launch major energy efficiency programs, all of which has sparked billions of dollars worth of investment and, with the target of one third renewable energy by 2020, solar power looks a big winner to Stanford University's Professor Stephen Schneider. STEPHEN SCHNEIDER: We need to have a learning by doing experiment and you can't learn by doing until you start doing. We should have started doing 25 years ago, and solar is going to be, in my personal opinion, a significant piece of a long term solution. MATT PEACOCK: If solar is a solution anywhere, though, argues the Australian Conservation Foundation's Professor Lowe, it should be here. PROF IAN LOWE, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: The amount of solar energy that hits Australia alone in one summer day alone is about half the total global annual energy demand. I'll say that again, because most people can't believe it. The whole world in half a year uses about the same amount of energy as the solar energy that hits Australia in one summer day. IAN MACFARLANE, INDUSTRY MINISTER: Solar currently costs somewhere around five to six times as much as coal. Twice as much, maybe even more than wind. What we need to do is have projects that will reduce the cost of solar. MATT PEACOCK: For David Mills, the best opportunity to improve the viability of solar power is to go offshore, as many have done before him. DAVID MILLS: I've seen very talented people leave. I've seen technologies leave. Our own technology for

3 Page 3 of 4 evacuated tubes, to the point that, to give you the example, three quarters of the world's solar collectors are actually produced in China and 80 per cent of those use University of Sydney technology. There has been a failure of business on several counts. MATT PEACOCK: In 1988 the buried contact solar cell technology left for Spain. Soon after, evacuated tube technology went to China and evacuated glazing was snapped up by Japan. In 2001, Australia's Dr Zhi took his solar cells to China and, by 2004, crystalline silicone-on-glass technology went to Germany. The Opposition's shadow environment minister, Peter Garrett, thinks enough is enough. PETER GARRETT, OPPOSITION ENVIRONMENT SPOKESMAN: Why can't he set it up here? Why can we export the technology? Why can't we employ the Australians here? Why can't we build a clean and green solar industry in Australia? Have a massive nation building exercise which sees profound support for the solar technologies that Australian scientists are delivering? That's what the Government has failed to do and that's why Mills and his company are moving overseas. MATT PEACOCK: That's not true, declares Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane. The company's headquarters will remain firmly in Australia. IAN MACFARLANE: Well, I've spoken to David Mills and his company representative and both of them say their operations will be remaining in Australia. They are certainly looking to set up a subsidiary, but they've got a number of very large projects planned in Australia of which the Government is already funding the pilot to the tune of $3.2 million. DAVID MILLS: The headquarters is leaving. But in terms of the company, the company is definitely staying and we will continue to try to get up projects in Australia. MATT PEACOCK: But the Government cites its recent $75 million commitment to Mildura's planned power station as proof of its policy commitment. IAN MACFARLANE: We've got a huge investment coming from the Commonwealth Government in the area of solar, over $400 million as part of a package of more than a billion dollars, for renewable energy in Australia. We've seen investment in renewable energy grow to over $3 billion under the policies of this Government. MATT PEACOCK: That's still dwarfed by the opportunities in California, where David Mills hopes to turn his vision for a solar power grid into reality. DAVID MILLS: The thing about solar is that we can grow very, very rapidly. Eventually we can start putting in gigawatt plants at the rate of one per year. We know how to do that already. KERRY O BRIEN: Matt Peacock with that report. Search the 7.30 Report Search Sort by: relevance date Video

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